Women will fix the world. We will fix the world.

PRESS RELEASE

In March 2017 a group of women regularly attending the Pulse of Europe event in Berlin launched a campaign, and now they are organising a Women’s March for Europe.

On 9 May 2018 – Europe Day – we intend to send out a clear signal in support of humanist values and against toxic masculinity.

We will meet from 11 am to 2 pm on Pariser Platz by the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Our motto is Women for Europe – Europe for Women.

All political parties on the democratic spectrum are warmly welcome to attend.

This event is a prelude. We want to map out new paths towards coexistence between women and men. We want to trigger a new wave against populism, autocracy and backward-looking patriarchy in Germany and Europe – those are our aims.

We look forward to hearing Federal Minister Dr Franziska Giffey and many other exemplary speakers who will talk about their commitment.

If we look around the world, we women in Europe seem to be doing quite well. That does not mean that women and men should be satisfied with the status quo. Not only have many progressive laws, although adopted, not been enforced; there is still a great deal more to do towards achieving and protecting permanent equality.

Even in Europe, women are still

paid less for the same work and the same qualifications.

Women are still not fairly represented, and are often blatantly under-represented, in leadership positions in business, research, politics and even cultural and social organisations.

Women are still doing most of the work for families in the home, in raising children and in providing home care for sick and elderly relatives.

We still cannot move around freely and safely in public – and in fact it is becoming harder again.

Women are still victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse.

Women are still encouraged into certain roles and pressurised to stay “young”, “slim”, “pretty” and “nicely behaved” and to obey these patriarchal rules.

It is still men who set the tone in politics, in business and in research.

We know that populists, dictators and politicians like Trump, Putin, Erdogan don’t care tuppence for women’s rights. Quite the reverse: they are making life especially hard for women – look at Trump’s attitudes, or what happened recently in Russia, where they abolished the law protecting women from domestic violence! And we all know what Erdogan thinks about women’s issues.

So it’s important that we women of Europe stand up for human rights, democracy, the environment, peace, equality, equal pay, and all the other things that are important to us.